Consulting business ideas

Consulting business ideas – if you’re stumped by your search for consulting business ideas, you’re not alone. Even when you’ve embraced the idea of starting a consulting business, it can still be a challenge to figure out what will work for you. If you’ve worked through my series of posts on becoming a consultant and you’ve checked out my ever-growing list of consulting business ideas but you’re still not sure what kind of consulting you should do, you might want to look at doing a personal inventory.

Personal inventories help you choose a business
I talk about personal inventories in First Steps in Consulting: Now What? A personal inventory helps you draw out your life, work, education and personal experiences, so that you can figure out major themes, trends and, more specifically, skills. By figuring out who you are and what you know, it’s a lot easier to come up with consulting business ideas. So often we can fall into a trap of only seeing ourselves in a certain way.

For example, a friend of mine toiled for years as a social worker until she was able to reframe herself as a fund manager for a major non-profit. A disgruntled clergyman realized that his skills in fundraising, project management, marketing and community building made him the perfect person to start a Tony & Tina’s Wedding show here in Vancouver. And I know a teacher who repositioned herself as a fitness consultant. Figuring out all your strengths and skills can help you discover your true potential.

Where to find a personal inventory for consulting
When I wrote First Steps in Consulting: Now What?, I tried to point people to a few resources for building personal inventories. I’ve written for careers publications for about 13 years and careers educators are always recommending the use of personal inventories. But I found that most of the personal inventories out there are designed for high school and college students. There wasn’t much out there for other people and there really wasn’t anything for people interested in starting a consulting business. So, following in the success of my Consulting Fees Guide, I decided to put together a new report: Discover Your Inner Consultant.

Discover Your Inner Consultant is a 77-page workbook designed to help you sift through your life, work and educational experiences so that you can come up with a consulting business that suits you. Let’s face it — starting a consulting business takes energy. If you aren’t pursuing something that matches with who you are, you’re going to waste energy on that friction. So why not choose a consulting business that gives you energy? Life is short. You might as well enjoy what you’re doing — and make money at the same time.